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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.